Scalise's credentials questioned

The Louisiana Republican is the chairman of the most conservative wing of House Republicans. He’s sparred with the White House on Obamacare, climate change, energy taxes and pushed to defund the administration’s agency czars. And he even received an 81 percent rating from the Heritage Foundation, higher than any of the current House Republican leaders.

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Yet, questions about Scalise’s conservative credentials have dogged him with the hard right since he took over the Republican Study Committee in 2012.

“I look at different sets of votes and vote rankings to determine who is the liberal half versus the conservative half of our conference and none of the folks you mentioned to my recollection settle out in the conservative half,” said Alabama Republican Rep. Mo Brooks last week, speaking broadly of all the candidates. “I’d like to see people who represent American values, first and foremost.”

In an interview on Thursday, after publication, Brooks clarified that Scalise is “clearly in the conservative half in the caucus.”

Brooks has not publicly committed to supporting any candidate.

So now, as Scalise tries to make moves to take on an even bigger role in the conference as whip, the question is whether his conservative resume can trump some of the grumbling about him that his votes aren’t hard line enough and that he works too closely with GOP leadership.

His detractors grumble that he voted for supporting flood insurance, that he has ties to leadership and that he backed the controversial firing of a top RSC aide.

Scalise hasn’t been put off by his opposition. He came out with an aggressive whip campaign just hours after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.) lost his primary, positioning himself as the conservative alternative to current chief deputy whip Peter Roskam of Illinois.

But despite the coordinated effort, Scalise has found himself gaming out how members, including some of his Republican Study Committee cohorts, will vote during Thursday’s whip race. His strategy has been complicated further by Rep. Marlin Stutzman opting to get in the race as a long-shot alternative to Scalise and Roskam.

With less than 24 hours until the vote, Scalise still maintains a lead among committed lawmakers. The Louisiana Republican’s whip count, which his allies say is more than 100, remains slightly ahead of current Roskam. Roskam began Wednesday with support in the mid-90s, according to multiple sources familiar with his whip count. The tricky question for Scalise’s camp is what happens if a second ballot is needed and where Stutzman’s backers throw their support.

Still, the Scalise camp is highly confident. They continue to argue that he will wrap it up on the first ballot and even Scalise took part of the morning off on Wednesday to practice for the upcoming Congressional Baseball Game.

Ohio Republican Rep. Steve Stivers pointed to Scalise’s conservative voting record and tenure as the head of the RSC for why members should back Scalise.

“I have no idea how anybody could think Steve Scalise isn’t conservative enough” said Stivers, who is acting as a whip for Scalise. “He’s probably in the top 10 percent of the most conservative [lawmakers].”

But still a distaste for Scalise’s brand of conservationism has prompted several members, including Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio), Tom Reed (N.Y.) and Sean Duffy (Wis.) to back Stutzman. Roskam and Stutzman supporters have also pointed to a controversial vote Scalise cast for flood insurance.

Scalise, who represents a district on the Gulf of Mexico, was adamantly against allowing premiums to jump for insurance holders in flood zones. He helped GOP leadership whip members in support of delay the premium increases over objects from Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), the Committee on Financial Services chairman, which has jurisdiction.

Conservatives broadly opposed the delay and conservative groups criticized the legislation as a waste of federal funds.

“I mean Roskam voted against the flood insurance, Scalise pushed it. Who is more conservative?,” quipped North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson, who is whipping for Roskam.

Still, Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) said Scalise’s stand on the flood-insurance bill is easily defensible.

“You could take that position, but then you would also have to defend all of a sudden, people who had bought their homes, brought their properties in good faith with certain expectations for costs of flood insurance – all of a sudden, their floor insurance would go up five times or 10 times what it was before,” Fleming said. “It might be $2,000 per year, now it’s $25,000 per year. That’s unrealistic. We were hearing stories across the state that people were just taking their keys and dropping them off with the banker.”

Some conservatives also question his close relationship with Speaker John Boehner and whether Scalise would represent their interests at the leadership table.

Scalise won the Republican Study Committee chairmanship over Rep. Tom Graves - a Georgia Republican who initially won the backing of the group’s founders. Those founders urged the 170-something members of the committee to back Graves but instead Scalise eeked out a victory - even after pledging to work closely with Boehner. The Republican Study Committee is traditionally designed as a mechanism to drag GOP leadership to the right.

Scalise also caught the ire of some conservative members when he fired RSC executive director Paul Teller.

Still, Scalise supporters are pushing aggressively to make it known that they are all-in for him.

Rep. Kevin Brady said that he is strongly supporting Scalise one a first and second ballot.

“You know, people don’t play games, they pick the best candidate and for me the best conservative candidate — and I think it will all work out. The truth is we have really good candidates in this race.”